Posted on 03/29/2017 7:15:49 PM PDT by TigerClaws
Isabella Marie Sammartano
With deep sadness we mourn the sudden passing of our dear daughter Isabella (Bella) Sammartano, age 20, who succumbed to her battle with addiction and died from a heroin overdose in our home on March 24, 2017. Showing strength, determination, and a love for life, Bella lived clean for the last 16 months before her sudden relapse last week, succumbing to this terrible disease, now an epidemic and taking far too many of our loved ones from us every day.
Bella will be remembered as intelligent and full of love, conviction, empathy, and with a sense of humor well beyond her years. Bella loved her family first, and here at home was where she felt safe and truly loved. Her empathy for others knew no bounds, and Bella was always quick to come to the defense of others. Bella loved the outdoors, the woods, and all the animals that lived there. She loved bones, fossils, rocks, feathers, mushrooms, and was generally in reverence of everything in the natural world. Bella could be found exploring the woods, observing nature, and reflecting on the science of things with a passion. Bella was also a talented artist who though secretive and modest about her abilities, was occasionally proud to share her amazing sketches with her family or closest friends.
After graduating from Kirkwood High School in 2014, Bella soon found herself struggling with the disease of addiction, and entered a number of recovery facilities in Minnesota, California, and Missouri, before returning to her Kirkwood home in 2016 and to her supportive and loving family. Here she attended St. Louis Community College at Meramec receiving the highest grades, making Dean’s List last semester, and where Bella was preparing herself for a future in the biological sciences. Bella had dreams. She spoke of graduate school and of working in a lab someday, and all of this seemed possible until her life was tragically cut short last week.
Bella is survived by her devoted and loving mom and dad, Christy Hathaway Sammartano and Dan Sammartano, and her adoring sister Francesca (Frankie) Sammartano, all of Kirkwood, Missouri. She also leaves behind her loving grandmother Carolyn Clark (Grandma Lyn) of Turners Falls, Massachusetts, and a loving and supportive family of Aunts, Uncles and cousins in Missouri and Massachusetts. These include her Aunt Valery Griffin (Uncle Pete) of Gill, MA, uncles Michael Hathaway (Katherine Mitchell) and Matthew Hathaway (Jessica Hathaway), of St. Louis, MO, and her uncle Chris Sammartano (Ann Fitzgerald) of Ipswich, MA. She also leaves her cousins Lexi Griffin of Gill, MA, Cooper Sammartano of Ipswich, MA, and Lucy, Romy and Ivy Hathaway all of St. Louis, MO. She also leaves behind her loving godmother Missy (Michel) Lewis, and “Aunt” Angela (Buckley) Martin, both of St. Louis. Bella is also survived by a lifetime of schoolmates, close friends, and people she came to know in and out of recovery.
Visitation: A Visitation will be held for the public at Bopp Chapel in Kirkwood, on Thursday, March 30, 2017 between 4:00 and 8:00 PM. A private service will be held in Massachusetts for close family.
Bella was a strong-willed woman choosing to fight the addiction her own way, but who would ultimately succumb to this terrible disease. It’s her family’s hope that her passing will bring awareness to heroin addiction as a treatable and organic disease, and to drug proliferation in our communities and homes. In honor of Bella’s short and wonderful life, please consider a donation to the Harris House Foundation, harrishousestl.org.
You have absolutely no clue as to what you are talking about.
How about the teen age girl who ends up getting addicted because her “boyfriend” just wanted to pimp her out? How about the severely wounded vet who got addicted during all the surgeries and rehab from his injuries?
These are just a few of the foljs I know......there are countless stories that don’t fit your all knowing opinion
Not every disease is a “germ in the air” and to say so is just silly. It makes you seem ignorant and foolish. Asthma is a disease my son was born with. He didn’t catch it. I have an autoimmune disease. I didn’t catch that either nor is it caused by my lifestyle; I’m actually pretty disciplined and have healthy habits.
We live in a fallen world and are all born with a sinful nature. We just have different proclivities regarding sin. For some, the area in which they are weak is pridefulness. That one may be harder to recognize in oneself, but it’s one that God says He hates.
And you know nothing of alcoholism. But it’s always nice to have an opinion even when it’s wrong
Good for you
I there are those who need more than will power. I’ve known folks who did it on will power.....some of the most miserable unhappy and judgemental people I have ever met
“heroin use and epidemics come out of the brain of individual users who make decisions to use the drug.”
Like most all the people who comprise the dregs of society, their undoing is the result of very bad choices during the youth of their lives.
By definition, you can’t be “alcoholic” without alcohol.
You put that in your body because you crave it.
You are responsible for that action.
“Like the ER doc you have a skewed view”
My views on addiction are based on years of experience, through direct, multi-year contact with roughly 1,800+ individuals in real world settings; working directly with the person and their families inside their actual homes and in their neighborhoods.
Where do your opinions deride from?
And you are mostly incorrect.
If it were just about not using or drinking then stopping would be enough. It is not. The fact that you don’t know that says you do not understand it
Tell me oh wise one exactly what do you know about alcoholism or addiction
Then solution starts with putting the blame on the correct people. I am addicted to sugar and I’m 70 years old. I don’t blame the cane growers, or the processors or the stores and restaurants. I don’t want the police to, save me. I blame myself.
Everyone in AA stops it, and relies on God to help keep them from lapsing.
What’s the basis for your position? It sounds ignorant.
You are incorrect....there is a genetic component to it. The fact that it can be pinpointed in the neurotransmitters and DNA of an individual tells us otherwise. Moreover not drinking doesn’t relieve the cravings....and if you have never experienced them you are clueless.
Your comment is rather like telling a type one diabetic that if they don’t eat sugar they won’t be diabetic. You are so far behind the research it’s sad
“Well, unless said person forcibly had her take heroin, the dead woman is ultimately the one responsible.”
I know but the pushers are in an illegal and immoral trade that kills people. I hold them responsible too.
Twenty years of sobriety and work with hundreds one on one and thousands in the rooms
You don’t need Jesus. You need a higher power. If that’s Jesus for you, fine.
And if you ask those in AA they will tell you they rely on a lower greater than themselves....that takes many forms. They will also tell you that it isn’t about drinking...that was but a symptom
The basis for my opinion is twenty years of sobriety, work with other alcoholics and addicts, and training in the area.
So what is a person with constant chronic pain
from damage to a spinal nerve supposed to do?
DNA does not make anyone an alcoholic or drug user. There are markers that show a greater propensity toward rewards from such behavior, but a huge number of people never have issues, despite these markers.
A person who eats too much gets fat. That is also not a disease, yet larger people say they can’t stop it. Fat cells, after dieting, release more hormones to encourage eating to regain weight. Still, this “genetic” behavior does not make eating too much a “disease.”
Alcoholism is simply a matter of self-control, just as eating too much is, too.
Your confusing a drunk with an alcoholic.
You can’t be a drunk without alcohol.
You can choose to quit drinking and do so for the rest of your life, but you’re still going to be an alcoholic,one drink away from becoming a drunk again.
As you said, it still takes alcohol in your body to be an alcoholic.
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